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Immigrants' rights group slams detention center

Watchdog group calls for immediate closure

A national watchdog group has named the Etowah County Detention Center one of the worst immigration detention facilities and is calling for its immediate closure.

FILE | Sarah Dudik | Gadsden Times

By Kendra CarterTimes Staff Writer

Published: Thursday, November 15, 2012 at 6:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Friday, November 16, 2012 at 9:19 a.m.

The Detention Watch Network on Thursday released 10 “Expose and Close” reports on facilities across the country housing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees, saying the reports “detail the acute and chronic human right violations occurring in immigration detention in the United States today.”

“These are completely inhumane places, and people should not be held in them,” said Emily Tucker, director of policy and advocacy for the Washington, D.C.-based organization. “They violate human rights, they violate civil liberties and we want them closed.”

Contacted Thursday about the report, Scott Hassell, chief of corrections at the detention center, directed questions to Natalie Barton, public information officer for the Etowah County Sheriff’s Office. Barton said all media inquiries were being directed to the ICE New Orleans field office.

“ICE is in the process of fully reviewing the reports,” according to a statement released from Public Affairs Officer Bryan Cox in ICE’s New Orleans Field Office. “However, it is disappointing that the reports appear to be built primarily on anonymous allegations that cannot be investigated or substantiated, and many secondhand sources and anecdotes that pre-date the agency’s initiation of detention reform. ICE stands behind the significant work we’ve done reforming the detention system by increasing federal oversight, improving conditions of confinement and prioritizing the health and safety of the individuals in our custody.”

Trouble items cited in the Etowah County report include minimal access to medical care, requiring family and attorneys to visit with detainees via teleconference, offering inadequate or inedible food and offering no access to outdoor recreation. Detainee advocates called the location remote and said its distance from Atlanta makes it difficult for detainees to receive legal counsel.

The Etowah County Detention Center houses federal immigration detainees through a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service. County and jail officials have been working in recent months to negotiate a contract with ICE to continue housing detainees.

The detention center is paid $40 per inmate, per day, to house the detainees, which the immigration advocates say is one of the lowest day rates in the country.

Tucker said many of the detainees at Etowah are “suffering from indefinite detention,” meaning they already have notice of removal from the judges in their cases, but because of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and their country of origin, the U.S. is unable to deport them.

“So they just languish in detention for months, and in some case years, waiting to figure out what’s going to happen,” she said.

Abraham Paulos, executive director of New York City-based Families for Freedom, a human rights organization that offers support to detainees and individuals fighting deportation, said one of the most stark problems at the Etowah County Detention Center is the food.

“It actually got to be so bad over the summer that the detainees staged a protest ...,” Paulos said.

Paulos, who worked Etowah’s Expose and Close report, cited his primary sources as direct testimony with detainees through a support hotline set up by the FFF, conversations with freelance journalists Lisa Riordan Seville and Hannah Rappleye, who investigated the facility for NBC News, and a report filed last March by the Women’s Refugee Commission.

Paulos said no one in the organization has ever gone to Etowah, saying they do not have the capacity or funds to do so.

He said the FFF hotline gets 30 to 40 calls a week. Last year, about 30 percent to 40 percent of the calls were from detainees at the jail, he said, because a large number of New Yorkers were transferred to Etowah County to await deportation.

Paulos said there had been a lull in calls because a lot of regular callers had been deported, but on Thursday said one or two detainees from Etowah County had called the hotline that day.

Tucker said there are about 250 facilities nationwide that house immigration detainees.

ICE in December 2010 announced it was removing its detainees from the jail, which would have resulted in the loss of 50 jobs and millions of dollars to the county. However, county officials and Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, successfully lobbied for a reprieve.

The detention center currently operates under the 2000 National Detention Standards, but officials have been working to upgrade to the 2011 Performance Based National Detention Standards, which jail officials have said would primarily touch on the health care program, outdoor recreation and cultural issues, including food.

ICE officials in the statement said they have offered to meet with the authors of the report.

“The agency is committed to providing the highest standards of care to detainees and has implemented initiatives to ensure the detained individuals or advocacy organizations can report individual cases or concerns to the agency in real time,” the statement reads. “This includes the establishment of the Office of the Public Advocate to help resolve complaints and the creation of a toll-free hotline for community or individual concerns.”

<p>The Detention Watch Network on Thursday released 10 “Expose and Close” reports on facilities across the country housing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees, saying the reports “detail the acute and chronic human right violations occurring in immigration detention in the United States today.”</p><p>“These are completely inhumane places, and people should not be held in them,” said Emily Tucker, director of policy and advocacy for the Washington, D.C.-based organization. “They violate human rights, they violate civil liberties and we want them closed.”</p><p>Contacted Thursday about the report, Scott Hassell, chief of corrections at the detention center, directed questions to Natalie Barton, public information officer for the Etowah County Sheriff's Office. Barton said all media inquiries were being directed to the ICE New Orleans field office. </p><p>“ICE is in the process of fully reviewing the reports,” according to a statement released from Public Affairs Officer Bryan Cox in ICE's New Orleans Field Office. “However, it is disappointing that the reports appear to be built primarily on anonymous allegations that cannot be investigated or substantiated, and many secondhand sources and anecdotes that pre-date the agency's initiation of detention reform. ICE stands behind the significant work we've done reforming the detention system by increasing federal oversight, improving conditions of confinement and prioritizing the health and safety of the individuals in our custody.”</p><p>Trouble items cited in the Etowah County report include minimal access to medical care, requiring family and attorneys to visit with detainees via teleconference, offering inadequate or inedible food and offering no access to outdoor recreation. Detainee advocates called the location remote and said its distance from Atlanta makes it difficult for detainees to receive legal counsel.</p><p>The Etowah County Detention Center houses federal immigration detainees through a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service. County and jail officials have been working in recent months to negotiate a contract with ICE to continue housing detainees. </p><p>The detention center is paid $40 per inmate, per day, to house the detainees, which the immigration advocates say is one of the lowest day rates in the country. </p><p>Tucker said many of the detainees at Etowah are “suffering from indefinite detention,” meaning they already have notice of removal from the judges in their cases, but because of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and their country of origin, the U.S. is unable to deport them.</p><p>“So they just languish in detention for months, and in some case years, waiting to figure out what's going to happen,” she said.</p><p>Abraham Paulos, executive director of New York City-based Families for Freedom, a human rights organization that offers support to detainees and individuals fighting deportation, said one of the most stark problems at the Etowah County Detention Center is the food. </p><p>“It actually got to be so bad over the summer that the detainees staged a protest ...,” Paulos said. </p><p>Paulos, who worked Etowah's Expose and Close report, cited his primary sources as direct testimony with detainees through a support hotline set up by the FFF, conversations with freelance journalists Lisa Riordan Seville and Hannah Rappleye, who investigated the facility for NBC News, and a report filed last March by the Women's Refugee Commission. </p><p>Paulos said no one in the organization has ever gone to Etowah, saying they do not have the capacity or funds to do so. </p><p>He said the FFF hotline gets 30 to 40 calls a week. Last year, about 30 percent to 40 percent of the calls were from detainees at the jail, he said, because a large number of New Yorkers were transferred to Etowah County to await deportation.</p><p>Paulos said there had been a lull in calls because a lot of regular callers had been deported, but on Thursday said one or two detainees from Etowah County had called the hotline that day.</p><p>Tucker said there are about 250 facilities nationwide that house immigration detainees. </p><p>ICE in December 2010 announced it was removing its detainees from the jail, which would have resulted in the loss of 50 jobs and millions of dollars to the county. However, county officials and Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, successfully lobbied for a reprieve.</p><p>The detention center currently operates under the 2000 National Detention Standards, but officials have been working to upgrade to the 2011 Performance Based National Detention Standards, which jail officials have said would primarily touch on the health care program, outdoor recreation and cultural issues, including food. </p><p>ICE officials in the statement said they have offered to meet with the authors of the report. </p><p>“The agency is committed to providing the highest standards of care to detainees and has implemented initiatives to ensure the detained individuals or advocacy organizations can report individual cases or concerns to the agency in real time,” the statement reads. “This includes the establishment of the Office of the Public Advocate to help resolve complaints and the creation of a toll-free hotline for community or individual concerns.”</p>